Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg
is seeking Swiss technology to bolster a Kremlin-backed
“innovation city” he’s helping to set up near Moscow.

Discussions are starting with OC Oerlikon Corp., in which
the businessman holds at least 39 percent, Vekselberg told
reporters yesterday in Moscow.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has appointed Vekselberg,
whose fortune Forbes magazine estimates at $6.4 billion, to help
create a “Silicon Valley” to develop and market technological
innovations in Moscow’s Skolkovo suburb. Medvedev is seeking to
cut the economy’s dependence on commodities exports.

“We want global technological leaders to set up their
research and development centers there,” Vekselberg said in
English. Russia may approach Zurich University about
participating in the Skolkovo project, Vekselberg said.

Sulzer AG, in which Vekselberg holds about 31 percent, may
also be asked to join the project, according to the
billionaire’s holding company, Renova Group.

Vekselberg said he hopes Russian-Swiss economic relations
will be a focus of talks when Swiss President Doris Leuthard
visits Russia in August. The Swiss authorities fined him 40
million francs ($35 million) in January for allegedly failing to
declare he acted with other investors in buying Oerlikon shares.

Renova is opening up the Russian market for European
companies in which it holds stakes, Chief Investment Officer
Vladimir Kuznetsov said yesterday in an interview in Moscow.
Foreign assets, including Oerlikon and Sulzer, account for about
a quarter of Vekselberg’s fortune, he said.

Oerlikon and Sulzer may each boost Russian sales to more
than 200 million Swiss francs a year, Kuznetsov said. Oerlikon
may add 60 million francs of revenue to last year’s 160 million
francs of sales in the country, he said.

Sulzer has supplied pumps to OAO Transneft’s oil pipeline
across eastern Siberia to the Pacific, while Renova’s Avelar
Energy, which owns natural-gas storage in Italy, may co-operate
with OAO Gazprom, Russia’s export monopoly for the fuel,
Kuznetsov said.